There will be five MLS teams competing in this year's CONCACAF Champions League after Toronto FC pulled off the improbable, beating Montreal, 6-1, on Thursday night in the final match of the NutriLite Canadian Championship to take the tournament and clinch its first Champions League berth.

Dwayne DeRosario netted a hat-trick while Amado Guevara scored a pair to help TFC overcome an early 1-0 deficit and erase the four-goal deficit it had on the Vancouver Whitecaps in the race for the title and the Champions League place that went along with it.

The Toronto FC victory and Canadian Championship triumph means the USL will have only one team in the CONCACAF Champions League after sending both the Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders to the quarterfinals in the 2008/2009 edition of the tournament. Toronto FC will face Puerto Rico in the play-in round, with a home-and-home series set for late July. If Toronto FC beats the Islanders it will compete in a group that includes the Columbus Crew and Deportivo Saprissa.

What do you think of Toronto's victory? Still in shock? Glad to see MLS re-establish its superiority over the USL? Looking forward to potential TFC-Columbus Champions League matches?

Plain and simple, if John Limniatis is still coach of Montreal, they dont lose 6-1, they made a huge mistake firing him. Marc Dos Santos is an absolute digrace to the Montreal Impact and to the USL. He claims he’s disapointed, well you did nothing to inspire your team, you simply watched quietly from the bench as your worst players put in no effort. If Matt Jordan is in net there is no way he allows 6 goals. I have no idea why Srdje always tries to make a kick save, your a goalie, use your hands!!! This was an absolute disgrace and an embarassment to soccer in Canada.

they didnt try and give TFC the trophy …they just put in absolutely no effort, 0% …sure this game was meaningless, they want to rest some players, but this was a disgrace, only way to describe it …he did nothing to get his team going, he had no problem watching them score over and over, 4 goals in the second half, he did nothing and really should be fired immediately, he’s done no good since he took over

Suck it, IHM, an obvious Whitecaps fan. Montreal had six starters in! They had a half-dozen chances! Toronto just destroyed them. Back to the USL, and next year, when you’re in MLS, we can have fun knocking you out in similar style.

If the ‘Craps really wanted to win the cup then they should have taken it rather then rely on another team to hand it over to them. Valuable lesson learned, you want it, you better take it. No one to blame but yourselves.

I’m happy for TFC but Vancouver was betrayed by their USL cousin. It is a good thing that these two teams won’t be playing in the same league for much longer as the hatred level between them will only grow. God help us all if they both get into MLS some day … they won’t need a soccer ref but a boxing one instead. I predict blood will flow this weekend, book it!

OH GOD i never saw this coming in a million years. We won and deserved that win no matter what anyone says.
Not only did we beat Montreal, AT HOME, 6-1, we had the glory of STEALING the cup from Vancouver IN front of Vancouver IN the rain.
TORONTO TIL I DIE

None of the MLS teams will do anything in the CCL anyways, minus maybe DC United and Chicago, who have the depth to play all of the matches. It also doesn’t help that the final round of games are played AFTER the season is over. I don’t understand these competitions, the CONCACAF region will never be like the CONMEBOL or UEFA regions, so please stop trying.

Regarding TFC’s victory over Montreal Impact to win the Canadian Championship last night–three things immediately came to my mind:

1) How bitter are they in Vancouver?

2) What an interesting tie the preliminary round will be with TFC facing Puerto Rico Islanders. MLS vs USL. Puerto Rican national team captain and the best modern player that the Island of Enchantment has produced, Marco Velez with his current squad squaring off with the club that he helped to establish and that his family still supports–they are at just about every home game.

Let me get this right because I think I’m missing something here… Toronto FC is in the CCL (or atleast gets a berth) because of a Canadian tournament? This means that Toronto has two chances to get into the CCL or one chance to get into the SuperLiga depending on how they perform in this tournament and how their MLS season ends?

I suppose the US Open cup is the same thing but thats a far larger tournament where Toronto only needs to face off against a handful of lower league Canadian teams? Doesn’t seem right to me…

@Trent: Slow your role, playah. The gotta move on for you to have to play them. I understand that your boys are playing better right now but your boys have never been in international tournament play. it’s one thing to not be intimidated but you may not want to underestimate Columbus’ new challenge…

Hell, no. The only thing I’m glad to see is that Montreal stinks, since my Railhawks have three games against them at the end of the season. (Of course, my Railhawks have to recover from that soul-crushing U.S. Open Cup loss to Wilmington first. Man, that was a tough one. Now I know how Chelsea fans felt when John Terry missed that PK.)

I am curious, though, to see if TFC’s win is a sign that MLS will take the CCL more seriously this season — or if just TFC will. PR’s a good side. Those play-in games will be worth watching.

Actually, separate from Canada or USL or CL issues, there is a significant MLS regular season component here: the MLS East is looking like real BEAST!

–Columbus is rounding into shape. No, Columbus is tearing everyone they play a new one and Schelotto is looking better than he’s ever looked. And he’s looked pretty darn amazing in the past two years.
–While Chicago isn’t on fire, they’re clearly talented and deep and a handful for anyone they play.
–DC United will probably not impress for the next month because they’re playing mostly on the road but they appear to be deep and key players like Gomez, Pontius and now Wicks are “en fuego!”
–And now TFC appears positioned to right the ship. They’ve cleared some cap room (waiving Rohan Ricketts plus MoJo is under pressure) and the team just opened up a serious can of whupass in a meaningful game (others are correct–no way Montreal takes a dive on this one, especially after last year’s CL experience).
–and there aren’t too many weak sisters in the West now. Houston is dominating people, just shutting down opposing attacks. Chivas is a seriously good team. Seattle is playing well again. Colorado is now consistently solid. LAG is tough to get 3 points against. RSL may have reversed their season slide. Which means other than San Jose and perhaps Dallas, there aren’t any easy 3 points against anyone in the West.

So implications? If you’re NE (with Twellman again facing career uncertainty) and RBNY, things have to look real gloomy. Somewhere, somehow, teams outside the playoff picture need to start earning 3 points. And it’s real hard to look at the rest of the league and figure out where those 3 point games are going to come from if you’re NE or RBNY–especially given East competition.

Dave: TFC generally acknowledges the fact that Canadian fans care far more about international competition than domestic (EG, we’re fine with no Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup since 1993, but it’ll be panic city if the Olympic team doesn’t win in Vancouver). So they know that, since winning MLS isn’t realistic this year – mind you, people are expecting playoffs – the CCL is the biggest thing TFC’s involved with.

So they know how aggravated the fans were last year at missing out, and I expect they’re going to be as serious as cancer about Puerto Rico. The catch is that everyone here thinks they can’t win in Puerto Rico, so they’re going to have to get things done at BMO. Given their always-wonky finishing skills (including being perhaps the worst team, statistically, at taking penalties in soccer history), that’s a question mark.

Oh, and Frank: TFC probably should’ve scored six goals several times this year alone. Their finishing is just god-awful, but they create tons of chances, especially at home. Any TFC fan can probably reel off their ten worst TFC misses of the season, and I bet if you got three together they’d all pick different ones.

“Hiyoo”, open your eyes. You mention that only DC and Chicago will achieve anything in this tournament. Did you forget about the presence of Houston in CCL? Or did you forget they were the only MLS team to advance out of the group stage last year? Or did you not notice they are a deeper team this year than last? Did you fail to see that they are the best team by far in the league standings?

You say “I don’t understand these competitions, the CONCACAF region will never be like the CONMEBOL or UEFA regions, so please stop trying.” What is that about? Do you know the history of the European Cup? It wasn’t glamorous from day one, nor was the Copa Libertadores. The only way these tournaments become meaningful is if the fans treat them as meaningful. Do you say that no nation will ever break the dominance of Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Italy in World Cup play, so why bother trying? By your logic every World Cup should just be a tournament of those four teams. How about telling your child you’ll never be an adult, so why bother trying. I love your attitude, you are a real fan of soccer.

james irving, you’re a moron. Vancouver didn’t roll over against Montreal last year. Montreal won those games fair and square. After Vancouver beat TFC, they had every reason not to lose against Montreal.

If there is one advantage to the MLS system of playoffs it is seen here. No way should a game like this decide the Canadian bid for the champions league spot. Does anyone here really think Vancouver could not have improved on their 2-0 scoreline from earlier in the tournament if they were the ones playing this second-string side last night?

The rules should be altered so goal difference is used to determine home field advantage for a one-game final and I think all leagues around the world currently using tie-breakers in the top two should adopt it in case of a tie. It just wouldn’t be fair if, for example, an English title was decided on goal difference because one team put ten past a Derby-level patsy on the final day. Plus, a championship game like that brings in $$$ so I see no reason why leagues would not want to have it in place.

Its a round-robin tournament Tim. Everyone knows what is needed to begin with. The format encourages teams to go out and try to score to build up goal differences. I’ve got no issue with how its set up.

I agree 100% with what you are saying but I feel it never quite works out that way. The problem I should have mentioned earlier (and a big miss by me for not doing so) is that because there are an odd number of teams one team is sitting out during the last round of play. This gives the two other teams a major advantage because they know exactly what is necessary to advance going into their final match. On the other hand, the odd team out goes into its last match with a general idea of what is required (win, draw, loss, basically they know the result needed) but the specifics of goal difference are unknown. It is very unfairly constructed.

My original point that Toronto played a second string side is a moot issue in all other tournaments. This is because all the teams in the league or group play simultaneously on the final match day or go on to a playoff tournament. In fact, with the UEFA Cup soon giving way to the Europa League I cannot think of a tournament or league where goal difference is used in a situation with an odd number of teams. Since it appears Canada has only three teams of the quality to be in this tournament I think the right move is to use a final match in the event the teams are tied on points, with the tie-breakers used to determine the home team. If all three are tied, have #3 @ #2, with the winner @ #1. I do not think any of the teams would complain about increased fairness, exposure, or revenue in this scenario.

all these suggestions for changes to the format don’t make sense and neither do the accusations of Montreal rolling over.
1) There are only 3 teams in Canada that are of sufficient level to challenger for it. Sure we could let in Wawa United, but CONCACAF has minimum standards for teams in the champions league.
2) No other format makes sense with three teams than a 6 game home/away round robin.
3) Goal differential as the tie breaker was set before the tournament started. All teams knew it.
4) Anyone watching the game saw some fantastic goals by DeRo & Guevera that would have been goals against any competition.(please explain which goal was an easy one for Toronto)
5) Frei came up with some big game saves

Toronto knew what they had to do. They played a VERY aggressive attacking formation. DeRo and Amado played their best game together. Barret scored (although that alone could be cause for suspicion).

There is nothing wrong with the Canadian Tournament that a few more pro teams in Canada can’t fix. But until then..it’s the best we have.

Nobody rolled over you silly twit. Hey Vancouver! Would you like some ice for collective vaginas? I’ve never seen a bigger bunch of sore losers in my life. I can’t wait to murder your pathetic asses in MLS. I just hope you don’t go the way of the Grizzlies before we do if you know what I mean. You’re a disgrace.